Four states received increased federal Medicaid funding during the COVID-19 pandemic, though they may have terminated beneficiaries' coverage in violation of continuous coverage rules in place during the public health emergency, an audit by HHS' Office of Inspector General found.
The audit, published Sept. 22, found that Texas and Minnesota received additional federal funding for Medicaid between January 2020 and June 2021, despite terminating Medicaid coverage for 26,915 people for unallowable reasons.
New York, Florida and Minnesota terminated Medicaid coverage for 220,113 total enrollees for potentially unallowable reasons, because there was not sufficient support or documentation to indicate if the enrollees were disenrolled for permitted reasons.
The four states received $12.8 billion in additional funding during the audit period.
The audit also found Minnesota charged some Medicaid beneficiaries cost-sharing for COVID-19 testing and treatment in violation of federal rules.
The OIG recommended CMS to determine if money states received through COVID-19 emergency funding should be repaid to the government and work with Minnesota to determine if the state should refund Medicaid beneficiaries for cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatments.
CMS concurred with the OIG's recommendations, according to the audit.
See the full report here.